This invention relates in general to cooking, and more particularly to an oven for preparing barbecued foods.
Barbecued meats have traditionally been prepared over open fires, and while this procedure may be suitable for an occasional barbecue in the back yard, it is wholly inadequate for the preparation of barbecued meats on a large scale commercial basis. In the first place, open barbecue fires consume an enormous amount of fuel, which in most instances is wood or charcoal, since most of the heat from the fire merely escapes into the atmosphere without heating the meat. Also, open fires require constant attention to insure that they do not extinguish or else become too intensive. Not only do such fires require attention, but the meat must also be turned from time-to-time to insure that it cooks uniformly. As a consequence, foods cooked using conventional barbeque procedures require full time monitoring, which can in itself be expensive, considering the extended times that some barbecued meats are cooked.
Restaurants that specialize in barbecued foods have recently gained popularity, particularly in the southern states, and to meet the needs of these restaurants, commercial barbecue ovens have been developed. Some of these ovens rely solely on natural or liquid petroleum gas for fuel, and as a consequence do not provide the type of smoke that is necessary for the authentic barbecue flavor. Others are heated by electricity, and in addition to not providing adequate smoke, these ovens consume enormous amounts of power and are costly to operate. Still other ovens burn wood, but consume enormous quantities of it in order to provide the necessary heat and smoke. Indeed, some of these wood burning ovens permit the fire to become so hot that it produces a minimal amount of smoke, and this of course detracts from the quality of the barbecued meat. In fact, most of the heat and smoke produced by such ovens is lost to the atmosphere, just as is the case with open fires.
Wood suitable for barbecuing, particularly certain hardwoods such as hickory, is becoming more difficult and expensive to procure, and for that reason alone it is desirable to use the wood to its maximum benefit.